Uganda. It also may introduce service to Mumbai
and to Lagos, Nigeria, or
to Libreville, Gabon.

Star Alliance is trying
to expand its network by partnering
with low-cost carriers.

While LCCs still cannot be members of Star
Alliance, its Connecting Partner Model will
connect the airlines for
seamless check-in and
baggage handling across
connected flights and
will enable the LCCs to
provide privileges for Star
Alliance airline frequent-flyers. South African LCC
Mango, the first to implement the model, plans to
be connected by the third
quarter of 2016.

Delta Air Lines’ 80.9
percent on-time arrival
rate ranked it as December’s most punctual
major North American
airline, according to
FlightStats. North American carriers on average
got 77.4 percent of flights
to their gates within 15
minutes of their scheduled arrival times. Among
the 12 largest carriers,
Alaska Airlines (79.4 percent), American Airlines
(78 percent) and Frontier
Airlines (77.8 percent)
also had above-average
on-time rates. United
Airlines (77 percent),
Southwest Airlines
(76.4 percent), WestJet
(76.2 percent), Air Canada (75.4 percent), Virgin
America (72.1 percent),
JetBlue Airways (69.6
percent), Spirit Airlines
(68.9 percent) and Allegiant Air (57.3 percent)
had on-time rates below
the monthly average.

The United States and
Mexico will allow unlimited routes between
the two countries, U.S.
Transportation Secretary
Anthony Foxx announced.
Pending “internal rati-fication procedures” in
Mexico, the air transport
agreement “eliminates
government interference
in commercial aviation
decisions,” so U.S. carriers can serve any location
in Mexico from any location in the United States,
he said. Under a previous
agreement, only a limited
number of U.S. carriers,
usually two or three,
could operate between
each city pair. The agreement also is a key component of Delta Air Lines’
plans to increase its stake
in Aeroméxico.

Oneworld CEO Bruce
Ashby will step down in
June. Ashby has led Oneworld since December
2010. Since, the alliance
has expanded its capacity by nearly 60 percent
and added more than 15
carriers as full or affiliate
members. Oneworld’s
governing board has
begun a search to find his
replacement.

The United States and
Cuba have removed
a ban on scheduled
commercial air service between the two
nations, the U.S. State
Department announced.

Commercial air travelfrom the United Statesto Cuba has been re-stricted since 1963. U.S.law prohibits tourism inCuba, but “a stronger civilaviation relationship willfacilitate growth in autho-rized travel between ourtwo countries,” accordingto a State Departmentspokesperson. AmericanAirlines, United Airlinesand JetBlue all have indi-cated that they will sub-mit proposals for UnitedStates-Cuba flights tothe U.S. Department ofTransportation, and DeltaAir Lines has expressedinterest in such flights inthe past. American addedthat it hopes to launchservice in 2016.

The European Commission has cleared
Kazakh carrier Air
Astana to operate in
the European Union.
While the EU Air Safety
List still includes Kazakh-stan among nations that
lack sufficient aviation
safety oversight, the
commission granted an
exception to Air Astana,
removing operational
restrictions that had
been in place since
2009. The commission
will “closely monitor
future developments”
to determine whether to
add Thai carriers to its
list of restricted carriers.
The U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration recently
downgraded Thailand’s
rating for civil aviation
standards.

LODGING

Hyatt Hotels Corp.
disclosed that more
than 250 of its properties worldwide, almost

100 in the United States
alone, were affected by
malware attacks found
on Nov. 30. The malicious
software targeted payment card information—
including cardholder
names, card numbers,
expiration dates and
internal verification
codes—from Aug. 13,
2015, to Dec. 8, 2015,
plus a few attacks in late
July. The point-of-sale
system attacks occurred
mainly at restaurants but
also at spas, golf shops
and a “limited number
of front desks.” A Hyatt
spokesperson told BTN
the company worked
with third-party experts
Mandiant and Kroll to
complete the investigation. Hyatt does not
believe other customer
information was affected.

Hilton Worldwide has
launched Tru by Hilton,
a midscale brand for
the United States and
Canada. It features an
open-space lobby with
lounging, working, eating and entertainment
“zones;” a front desk
command center with
a social media wall and
a 24/7 market offering
wine, beer and healthy
snacks and meals; and
a complimentary Build
Your Own breakfast bar.
Hilton touts plenty of
in-room power-sources,
free Wi-Fi with enough
bandwidth for streaming
and downloading and
Digital Key and mobile
check-in through the
HHonors app. It has 102
hotels signed and 30
more are in various stages of approval including
in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Denver,